What Did You Buy Today?

[rayray]

(08-23-2021, 01:33 PM)Dividends from Scratch Wrote: I sold $VZ and realized a small loss. IMO it's a value trap. Spectrum getting more expensive, and obtaining frequencies is not a one-time event but an ongoing exercise. This means that debt will expand while margins shrink. As I'm prioritizing dividend growth, this is not for me.

vz is one of my larger holdings, mostly acts like a bond then does fairly decent when least expected or does better when the market is not so hot, imho

they own a decent amount of high quality 5G frequency that's not shared, the issue is they're really not using it either

this 5G no matter what company is deploying the tech is just starting--it's early in the game yet

[fenders53]

Ray,

Ken will be fine in the end. It just got hard to watch him dump quality stocks at a loss that he was enthusiastic about last month. Invent a ridiculous reason nobody is believing and then tell us he plans to buy the same stocks back. I need to leave him alone but I lost it when he said AMZN isn't "growing". They are printing the GDP of a decent sized country every quarter lol.

[rayray]

(08-23-2021, 09:15 PM)fenders53 Wrote: Ray,

Ken will be fine in the end.  It just got hard to watch him dump quality stocks at a loss that he was enthusiastic about last month.  Invent a ridiculous reason nobody is believing and  then tell us he plans to buy the same stocks  back.  I need to leave him alone but I lost it when he said AMZN isn't "growing".  They are printing the GDP of a decent sized country every quarter lol.

i consider amzn a buy and almost added but slacked off

amzn is taking a breather then they'll start running again lol

[fenders53]

VZ is turning into a mediocre utility. They may find a growth path but the opportunity cost hasn't been attractive for years.

[ken-do-nim]

Amazon perplexes me. In this amazing bull run since March of 2020, they have just been left out cold. They are actually -1.26% in the past year. Compare to Walmart (+14.56%) and Target (+64.79%). I *think* it's the case of them having been over-priced, and the rest of the retailers now catching up. And it's the same thing on the cloud side of things; they were first, but now Microsoft and Oracle are making strong plays. Ditto for the streaming service. Still, to be negative in such a year!

That said, they are a very creative company and I want to own Amazon because I don't want to be blind-sided when they make the next technological leap. However, since their stock price currently isn't growing and they don't offer a dividend, I had put it into next year's bucket list (along with Shopify, Ford, etc.). I just jumped the gun earlier when they dropped precipitously, hoping to "buy the dip". It didn't work out, but no biggie.

I do think many of the posters here have a different investing style from me. I'm more of a "try a bunch of things, discard those that don't work, and focus on those that do" investor.

[fenders53]

Ken

I am going to try ignore your trades for awhile. I do enjoy your company here. It's just the randomness of your moves and the short term creative rationalization. At the moment you are not "investing" by most anyone's definition, and it's hard to watch daily, but it's not hurting me.

Ray

I just pulled up VZ T and JNJ on Portfolio Visualizer with a chart from 2010. VZ has actually been a reasonable retirement type investment with CAGR over 10%. Of course T is a complete dumpster fire with a CAGR just over 5% and heading lower by the day. If you remove the last six months VZ has actually matched JNJ in return. It's just a case of what have you done for me this year VZ?

[Genester]

(08-22-2021, 08:16 PM)ken-do-nim Wrote: Sorry I've exasperated you, let me respond to your individual points.

> The yield chase trading game is beyond farcical as you dump them when they show themselves as yield traps that most of them are, despite 100 warnings on this forum.

First off, the whole high dividend payers search is part of a 'training exercise', if you will, for building a dividend paying machine that I can use at retirement.  I am hopeful that some of them I will be able to maintain for the long term and aren't, in fact, yield traps.  Yes absolutely, ORC, AGNC and NLY had to be cut, and in hindsight I was hoping, like Genester hopes now, that at a low enough price, they are worth buying, when that really isn't the case, since they over time continue to erode. 

I was actually just asking to be educated - I am not invested in NLY today. That said, If the market corrected 10-15% as many folks expect it will, and NLY is at $6, how is it a trap at that point? Again, it all depends on your perspective - I am looking to park cash in something that acts as a bond alternative with higher yield, and is unlikely to go out of business. I don't need much growth, in fact, would be perfectly happy with no growth and a safe dividend. There is some discussion of Verizon further on - that would also be a perfect stock for this purpose, at the right price. I have the vast majority of my retirement invested in passively managed index funds, so this play is simply because cash sitting in the bank loses value.

[fenders53]

Genester,

He was definitely referring to me. You are correct some of the yield traps can be played in a variety of ways. You have to look at charts going back through a couple of down cycles. It's also good to update yourself on the CURRENT situation. Almost all of them are too expensive to take a chance on now. When they do get hit, you can buy one that pays 7-8% and well managed instead. You'll still get some capital appreciation and sleep better knowing the management isn't playing excessive leverage games that could take the fund to BK or nearly so. Ken owns some of them. He paid way more than I did, but they are good when they get a 20% haircut, and they will at some point even though they are good. Investors just run them up way too high when the market gets too bullish. Zero yiloeds are aggravating the situation and causing desperation for yield chasing. But I don't disagree with you, there is a time and place NLY is worth a bet. I just don't prefer believe the drama is worth the extra 2% yield you get for a little while. With RQI, ARCC and a few others Ken now owns you won't get destroyed if you avoid buying the last 20% of the SP peak. You can swing in and out of NLY but you have 6-12 months to do it. Is a couple extra percent of yield you'll get if they don't blow up worth it? For me it isn't. In hindsight you can cherry pick times when it works out.

Don't ever be afraid to launch a thread on any subject here. That is what the place is for.

[kblake]

Bought PFE. Probably bought too high at $48.50 but figured why not. I needed to get a bit more drug stocks in my portfolio.

Also took new position in AGNC

Added to BTI before the ex dividend. And WSO, CAH, SMG, ADM, EOG and XOM

Sold some NKE, AOS, SM, WING, PLNT and XPO

Now have a higher yield and got rid of my low dividend and non dividend stocks. Made between 30-80% in each so not bad.

[MrFortune]

Added PFE and VICI

[ken-do-nim]

I hope AGNC works out for you.

****

Genester - I will update my Income stocks thread to my latest.

[fenders53]

[/quote]

Hold PFE for 25 years and you'll be fine.    Seriously though don't be afraid to swing trade this turkey.  I do think they are making some good decisions lately so who knows?  

BTI is starting to annoy me so that's probably a buy signal lol.  I might add a little more.

I have owned PFE since 1996ish so I am gradually looking for the exit. I've been patient lol

I need to add VICI. Covid has zero impact on their rent collection.